The formation of modern TKD

Modern TKD originated mostly from karate, right? I'm trying to find sources outside of bullshido on the subject.

I'm bringing it up because I ran into a guy who believes that WTF and ITF Taekwondo is directly descended from 2000 year old korean martial arts. Wikipedia's sources weren't good enough to disprove this for the poor fool, so I was hoping you guys might have some links/material saved.

Modern TKD originated mostly from karate, right? I'm trying to find sources outside of bullshido on the subject.

I'm bringing it up because I ran into a guy who believes that WTF and ITF Taekwondo is directly descended from 2000 year old korean martial arts. Wikipedia's sources weren't good enough to disprove this for the poor fool, so I was hoping you guys might have some links/material saved.

Easiest thing I would say would be research Chung Do Kwan's original Kwanjanghim, he got his black belt from Gichin Funakoshi (Shotokan founder). There was at least 1-2 more as well that did the same. General Choi claimed a 2nd in Shotokan, but I don't know if that was ever verified.
But yeah, the 2000 year history is bs. I mean Korea's been there for 2000 years, but TKD was formed in what, 1955? Before that there was Kong Su Do, etc etc.

The name was just a banner they flew up to put a name to the 'Korean' Martial art. Pushed through, largely due to General Choi's political influence.

It's actually been mentioned lately (no link sorry, yeah heresay and all that ;p), the hook kicks etc, come from a Filipino martial art. Wouldn't surprise me, I know their Kickboxing style (The name escapes me) has a 'Scorpion Kick' that I've done in TKD before.

So yeah, they also have stick fighting (Escrima anyone?), Kamas (Ssahn Nat), etc etc. Name a Chinese TMA weapon and there's a Korean variant, usually the same with Japanese ones. All invented by the Koreans of course...

The Kang & Lee article linked above is pretty good. For something a bit easier to read and understand, another good article is called 'The Evolution of Taekwondo from Japanese Karate' in this book - I can't vouch for the rest of the book, but the article in question is a well-researched and lucid history of the early years and a lot of the content is based on first-hand interviews.

The other thing you can do is just find an old Korean instructor who was training back in the 1960s. Whilst they're generally not waving a banner about the Japanese history of what they're doing, I've found most are quite happy to acknowledge and discuss history accurately in general conversation. Most have some good stories, too.

For a quick recap off the top of my head, though - yes, TKD developed from karate. Mostly Shotokan and Shudokan and one guy also did Shito-Ryu. The head of the moodukkwan, Hwang Kee, claimed to have studied some sort of kung fu, but I don't believe there's any proof and many people are pretty skeptical about this claim. Yoon Buyng In, who founded the YMCA Kwonbop bu, also apparently learned some CMA as a kid, and although I've never encountered anyone questioning it (though this could just be because he was less of a contentious figure than Hwang Kee), I haven't read any accounts that it influenced the karate he taught. General Choi also claimed to have studied Taekkyon, but again, there's no evidence and I don't think the claim is generally given much credibility.

But don't be too hard on your friend. The overwhelming majority of taekwondo instructors and practitioners believe some variant of the '20-bajillion-year-old ancient Korean martial art' story. The South Korean government and the WTF put a lot of effort into spreading this [mis]information, while the ITF put a lot of effort into promoting the personality cult of Choi and the idea that he created TKD (although they at least acknowledge SOME karate connection). I don't think TOO many people are deliberately spreading false information, most people just don't care very much and haven't researched it themselves.

Read exile's first two posts on this MT page for a better answer than I could give.

To summarise, though:

1. No one has been able to find proof that his Taekkyon/calligraphy teacher ever existed, and he was not known by any of the other Taekkyon practitioners in Seoul (of which were very few).

2. Chang Hon Taekwondo is simply nothing like Taekkyon. Although modern Taekkyon isn't the same as what it once was - and there isn't much info on what that was, although the research there is still indicates it was nothing like taekwondo - it looks nothing like that, either. What it DOES look like is the taekwondo taught by all the other kwans, which was developed from karate.